Dynamic Rupture in a 3-D Particle-based Simulation of a Rough Planar Fault

An appreciation of the physical mechanisms which cause observed seismicity complexity is fundamental to the understanding of the temporal behaviour of faults and single slip events. Numerical simulation of fault slip can provide insights into fault processes by allowing exploration of parameter spaces which influence microscopic and macroscopic physics of processes which may lead towards an answer to those questions. Particle-based models such as the Lattice Solid Model have been used previously for the simulation of stick-slip dynamics of faults, although mainly in two dimensions. Recent increases in the power of computers and the ability to use the power of parallel computer systems have made it possible to extend particle-based fault simulations to three dimensions. In this paper a particle-based numerical model of a rough planar fault embedded between two elastic blocks in three dimensions is presented. A very simple friction law without any rate dependency and no spatial heterogeneity in the intrinsic coefficient of friction is used in the model. To simulate earthquake dynamics the model is sheared in a direction parallel to the fault plane with a constant velocity at the driving edges. Spontaneous slip occurs on the fault when the shear stress is large enough to overcome the frictional forces on the fault. Slip events with a wide range of event sizes are observed. Investigation of the temporal evolution and spatial distribution of slip during each event shows a high degree of variability between the events. In some of the larger events highly complex slip patterns are observed.     

Particle Dynamics Simulations of Rate- and State-dependent Frictional Sliding of Granular Fault Gouge

— Recent simulations using the particle dynamics method (PDM) have successfully captured many features of natural faults zones as illuminated in laboratory studies. However, 2-D simulations conducted on idealized assemblages of particles using simple elastic-frictional contact laws, yield friction values considerably lower than natural materials, and lack time- and velocity-dependent changes in strength that influence dynamic fault slip. Here, preliminary results of new PDM simulations are described, in which particle motions are restricted as a proxy for particle interlocking and out of plane contacts, and time-dependent contact healing is introduced to capture temporal strengthening of granular assemblages. Frictional strength is increased, and in the absence of interparticle rolling, can attain values observed in the laboratory. The resulting mechanical behavior is qualitatively similar to that described by empirically-based rate-state friction laws, providing new physical insight into the discrete mechanics of natural faults.     

白云母对岩盐断层带摩擦速度依赖性影响的实验研究

为更好地理解层状硅酸盐对断层强度、滑动速度依赖性及地震活动特征的影响,利用双轴摩擦实验对含白云母岩盐断层带在干燥及含水条件下摩擦的速度依赖性进行了实验研究,并观测了摩擦滑动过程中的声发射,分析了断层带的微观结构.实验结果表明,干燥条件下含白云母岩盐断层带在0.1 ～ 100μm/s的速度范围内表现为黏滑和速度弱化,增大σ2会使断层带从速度弱化向速度强化转化,速度依赖性转换出现在0.1 μm/s,其中断层滑动表现为稳滑或应力释放时间较长的黏滑事件;含水条件下含白云母岩盐断层带在0.05 ～0.01μm/s的速度范围内表现为速度强化,0.1 ～10μm/s的速度范围内表现为速度弱化,50～100μm/s的速度范围内又转换为速度强化行为.含白云母岩盐断层带在干燥条件下一次黏滑伴随一个或一丛声发射事件,而在含水条件下与稳滑相对应,滑动过程中并未记录到声发射事件.显微结构观察表明,速度弱化域的主要变形机制是岩盐颗粒的脆性破裂和局部化的滑动;干燥条件下,速度强化域的主要变形机制是岩盐颗粒的均匀破裂;含水条件下2个速度强化域对应不同的微观机制,高速域的速度强化受控于岩盐颗粒在白云母相互连结形成的网状结构上的滑动及其均匀碎裂作用,而低速域的速度强化还受岩盐的压溶作用控制.通过与岩盐断层带摩擦实验结果对比可知,白云母的存在对于燥岩盐断层带摩擦滑动方式和速度依赖性没有显著影响,而在含水条件下白云母的存在使得岩盐断层带滑动趋于稳定.实验结果为分析含层状硅酸盐断层的强度和稳定性提供了依据.此外,在速度依赖性转换域上观察到的应力缓慢释放的现象进一步证实了在岩盐断层带摩擦滑动过程中观察到的现象,这对慢地震机制研究具有参考意义.     

THE GEOLOGICAL AND ROCK MECHANICAL DISTINCTION EVIDENCE BETWEEN STICK-SLIP AND CREEP IN HOST ROCK SEGMENTS OF FAULT

Paleo-seismic and fault activity are hard to distinguish in host rock areas compared with soft sedimentary segments of fault. However, fault frictional experiments could obtain the conditions of stable and unstable slide, as well as the microstructures of fault gouge, which offer some identification marks between stick-slip and creep of fault. We summarized geological and rock mechanical distinction evidence between stick-slip and creep in host rock segments of fault, and analyzed the physical mechanisms which controlled the behavior of stick-slip and creep. The chemical composition of fault gouge is most important to control stick-slip and creep. Gouge composed by weak minerals, such as clay mineral, has velocity weakening behavior, which causes stable slide of fault. Gouge with rock-forming minerals, such as calcite, quartz, feldspar, pyroxene, has stick-slip behavior under condition of focal depth. To the gouge with same chemical composition, the deformation mechanism controls the frictional slip. It is essential condition to stick slip for brittle fracture companied by dilatation, but creep is controlled by compaction and cataclasis as well as ductile shear with foliation and small fold. However, under fluid conditions, pressure solution which healed the fractures and caused strength recovery of fault, is the original reason of unstable slide, and also resulted in locking of fault with high pore pressure in core of fault zone. Contrast with that, rock-forming minerals altered to phyllosilicates in the gouges by fluid flow through degenerative reaction and hydrolysis reaction, which produced low friction fault and transformations to creep. The creep process progressively developed several wide shear zones including of R, Y, T, P shear plane that comprise gouge zones embedded into wide damage zones, which caused small earthquake distributed along wide fault zones with focal mechanism covered by normal fault, strike-slip fault and reverse fault. However, the stick-slip produced mirror-like slide surfaces with very narrow gouges along R shear plane and Y shear plane, which caused small earthquake distributed along narrow fault zones with single kind of focal mechanism.     

A Unifying Phase Diagram for the Dynamics of Sheared Solids and Granular Materials

We present a simple unifying model that can be used to analyze, within a single framework, different dynamic regimes of shear deformation of brittle, plastic, and granular materials. The basic dynamic regimes seen in the response of both solids and granular materials to slowly increasing loading are scale-invariant behavior with power law statistics, quasi-periodicity of system size events, and persisting long term mode switching between the former two types of response. The model provides universal analytical mean field results on the statistics of failure events in the different regimes and distributed versus localized spatial responses. The results are summarized in a phase diagram spanned by three tuning parameters: dynamic strength change (weakening, neutral or strengthening) during slip events, dissipation of stress transfer (related to the void fraction in granular materials and damaged solids), and the ratio of shear rate over healing rate controlling the regaining of cohesion following failures in brittle solids. The mean field scaling predictions agree with experimental, numerical, and observational data on deformation avalanches of solids, granular materials, and earthquake faults. The model provides additional predictions that should be tested with future observation and simulation data.     

岩盐断层带摩擦滑动的速度依赖性转换及其地震学意义

为了深入理解断层带摩擦滑动速度依赖性转换及其机制,利用双轴摩擦实验对干燥及含水条件下岩盐断层带摩擦的速度依赖性进行了实验研究,并观测了摩擦滑动过程中的声发射,分析了断层带的微观结构.实验结果表明,干燥岩盐断层带在0.1~100 μm/s的速度范围内表现为速度弱化,增大σ₂会使断层带向速度强化转变;含水条件下岩盐断层带在1~100 μm/s的速度范围内表现为速度弱化,而在0.1~0.01 μm/s的速度范围内表现为速度强化,速度依赖性转换出现在0.1~1 μm/s,其中断层表现为振荡或应力释放时间较长的黏滑事件;岩盐断层带在干燥条件下表现出很强的声发射活动,每个黏滑均对应一丛声发射事件,而在含水条件下一次黏滑只对应一个声发射事件.显微观察表明,局部化的脆性破裂是速度弱化域的主要变形机制,分布式的碎裂流动是干燥岩盐断层带在速度强化域的变形机制,颗粒边界迁移以及压溶作用的塑性变形是含水条件下岩盐断层带在速度强化域的主要变形机制,而脆性破裂和塑性变形共同控制着速度依赖性转换域断层带的变形.水的存在促进岩盐发生塑性变形,进而导致断层带从速度弱化向速度强化转换.上述结果有助于理解断层带上地震活动的特征和慢地震的机制.     

Characteristics of the AE Distribution and Triggering Mechanism of a Simulated Meter-Scale Fault after Stick-Slip Events

With the more complete acoustic emission (AE) catalog improved by the multi-channel AE matched-filter technique (MFT), we study the spatiotemporal evolution of the AE activities after laboratory stick-slip events incorporate with the slip data recorded by displacement transducers on an ~1.5 m granite fault. The results show that the number of the AE events identified by MFT is about 9 times larger than that of the traditional method. A logarithmic expansion of early AE events along the fault strike is observed as a function of time, whereas the fault does not slip in the same manner. Thus, we related the expansion of the early AE events along the fault to the stress transfer caused by the adjacent AE events. Moreover, there is a good correlation between the cumulative number of the later AE events and the amount of fault slip. It suggests that the stress change caused by the continuous slip of the simulated fault after the stick-slip events response for the later AE events near or on the simulated fault.     

区域加载过程与发震断层变形演化的实验研究

使用双剪粘滑模型模拟自发地震和诱发地震的区域加载过程,利用应变观测系统多点连续观测发震断层附近的局部应变变化。在应力与应变空间上描述了地震过程的区域应力路径和局部应变路径。结果表明,局部应变路径与应力宏观路径的形态差异较大,但两者的转换阶段对应,存在一定映射关系。断层局部变形路径的走向标明了断层所处在的变形阶段。自发地震的应变路径可以划分为3个部分:应变积累阶段、剪应变的线性偏离阶段和失稳滑动阶段。诱发地震的应变路径包括4个阶段:正斜率的应变积累阶段、负斜率的稳态滑动阶段、亚稳态应变僵持阶段、扰动失稳滑动阶段。自发地震与诱发地震有各自的路径模式,可以从应变路径上判别断层稳定性与可能的地震类型。     

Some questions of geomechanics of the faults in the continental crust

We present the results of laboratory experiments on studying the formation of different slip modes on the interfaces in a rock massif such as aseismic creep, stick-slip, and periodic slow-slip events. It is shown that the way of releasing the accumulated elastic energy is determined by the mesoscale structure of the gouge rather than by its macroscopic strength characteristics. The evolution of the stress chains which are formed and broken during the displacement on the fracture, as well as the length and number of these chains, completely determines the regularities of the deformation. The role of these load-bearing elements in nature can be played, e.g., by the “contact spots,” which determine the regularities of stress concentration near the interblock boundary. We consider the effects of low-amplitude vibrations on stressed fractures. It is shown that, depending on the mode of deformation, the vibration impact can either reduce or boost the amplitude of separate events and the fraction of energy that is released dynamically. In the conclusion of the paper, we discuss the possibility of using the shear strength of the fault zone as a geomechanical parameter controlling the mode of deformation.     

5°拐折断层在黏滑过程中物理场演化与交替活动的实验研究

在实验室利用96通道应变记录采集系统和分布式多通道瞬态信号采集系统,观测了预切5.拐折断层的标本在变形失稳过程中应变场和声发射事件的时空演化.实验在双轴伺服加载系统上进行.在Y方向按位移控制方式加载,位移速率先后取0.5μm/s、1μm/s、0.5μm/s和0.1μm/s.观测得到:1)标本沿断层发生周期性的黏滑失稳,...     

Experimental Study on the Stick-slip Phenomenon of Intact Granite under Solid Confining Pressure

In this paper,compression tests of intact granite samples have been made in a triaxial testing machine with solid confining pressure.From the tests,the influences of confining pressure and loading rate(axial strain rate)on the deformation and fracture process of rock samples,on the stress drop and recurrence interval of stick-slip events,and on the geometric distribution of the main fracture have been studied.The experimental results show that the loading rate influences the stress drop and recurrence interval of stick-slip events greatly.At lower loading rates,the stress drop of stick-slip events is greater,their recurrence interval is longer and shows no regularity in distribution.When the loading rate goes higher,the stress drop will become smaller and the recurrence interval will tend to be constant and stick-slip events show a quasi-periodicity.At lower confining pressures and strain rates,the main fracture may evolve into 2 X-shaped conjugate shear faults; whereas at higher confining pressures and     

Geometrical textures of faults，evolution of physical field and instability characteristics

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Slip synergism of planar strike-slip fault during meta-instable state: Experimental research based on digital image correlation analysis

The meta-instable state (MIS) is the final stage before fault instability during stick-slip movement. Thus, identification of MIS is of great significance for assessing earthquake hazard in fault zones. A rock sample with a precut planar fault was loaded on a horizontally biaxial servo-controlled press machine to create stick-slip conditions. Digital images of the sample surface were taken by a high-speed camera at a rate of 1000 frames per second during the stick-slip motion and processed using a 2D digital image correlation method to obtain the displacement field. We define a synergism coefficient that describes the relative dispersion of the accumulative fault slip. The results reveal that: (1) a local pre-slip area spreads very slowly along the fault before the MIS develops. It extends at a higher but still slow speed during meta-instable state I (MIS-I). During the final ～1.5% of MIS, in meta-instable state II (MIS-II), the local pre-slip area first extends at a speed of ～0.9 m/s, and then expands out of the observed image area at a very high speed. These results indicate that the local pre-slip area transforms from a state of quasi-static extension in MIS-I to quasi-dynamic extension in MIS-II. (2) The synergism coefficient of the fault slip decreases to half of its original value in MIS-I and to a quarter of its original value in MIS-II. This continuous decrease of synergism coefficient indicates that the strengthening of fault slip synergism is a characteristic of MIS. (3) Furthermore, the unstable sliding stage includes three sliding processes: initial-, fast-, and adjusted-sliding. There are two pauses between the three sliding processes.     

Experimental study on nucleation process of stick-slip instability on homogeneous and non-homogeneous faults

The nucleation process of stick-slip instability was analyzed based on the experimental measurements of strain and fault slip on homogeneous and non-homogeneous faults. The results show that the nucleation process of stick-slip on the homogeneous fault is of weak slip-weakening behavior under constant loading point velocity. The existence of a short “weak segment” on the fault makes slip-weakening phenomenon in nucleation process more obvious, while the existence of a long “weak segment” on the fault makes the nucleation process changed. The nucleation is characterized by accelerating slip in a local region and rapid increase of shear stress along the fault in this case, which is more coincident with the rate and state friction law. During the period when fault is locked, increasing of shear stress causes lateral elastic dilation near the fault, and the rebound of the dilation at the time of instability causes an instantaneous increase of normal stress in the fault plane, which is an important factor making fault be rapidly locked and its strength recovered.     

Experimental study on nucleation process of stick-slip instability on homogeneous and non-homogeneous faults

The nucleation process of stick-slip instability was analyzed based on the experimental measurements of strain and fault slip on homogeneous and non-homogeneous faults. The results show that the nucleation process of stick-slip on the homogeneous fault is of weak slip-weakening behavior under constant loading point velocity. The existence of a short "weak segment" on the fault makes slip-weakening phenomenon in nucleation process more obvious, while the existence of a long "weak segment" on the fault makes the nucleation process changed. The nucleation is characterized by accelerating slip in a local region and rapid increase of shear stress along the fault in this case, which is more coincident with the rate and state friction law. During the period when fault is locked, increasing of shear stress causes lateral elastic dilation near the fault, and the rebound of the dilation at the time of instability causes an instantaneous increase of normal stress in the fault plane, which is an important factor making fault be rapidly locked and its strength recovered.     

Fluid-assisted Healing Processes in Gouge-bearing Faults: Insights from Experiments on a Rock Analogue System

— On the basis of both experimental and field studies, solution transfer processes are expected to be important in contributing to fault strength recovery (healing) under the hydrothermal conditions prevailing in large parts of the seismogenic zone. However, most experimental work on healing effects in faults has been done using quartzo-feldspathic sliding surfaces or fault gouges, under conditions in which solution transfer processes are very slow. Mechanisms of fluid-assisted fault healing are accordingly rather poorly understood. We have performed slide-hold-slide fault healing experiments on simulated faults containing brine-saturated granular halite as a fault rock analogue. Halite was used because solution transfer processes are known to be rapid in this system under easily accessible conditions. We studied the effects of hold time duration, shear stress during hold, pre-hold sliding velocity and pore-fluid composition on strength evolution. The results show rapid fluid-assisted compaction and stress relaxation during hold periods, and a significant hold time-dependent strengthening upon re-shear. The data reveal that healing resulted from both a packing density increase and a contact area/strength increase during hold periods. The general type of behaviour observed is similar to that observed in quartzo-feldspathic gouges at room temperature, although important differences were observed as well. Notably, the time-dependence of healing deviates from the log-linear trend observed in gouges where solution transfer processes are absent. This means that if pressure solution is an important healing mechanism in natural faults, applying a log-linear trend will underestimate natural fault healing rates.     

断层黏滑动态变形过程的实验研究

实验研究断层黏滑过程的变形演化,尤其是失稳黏滑瞬间的断层位移演化特征,对于了解地震从孕育到发生的全过程具有重要意义.本文基于数字散斑相关方法(digital speckle correlation method, DSCM),用三套图像采集系统(两套低速和一套高速图像采集系统)搭建了断层黏滑过程的多观测区域、多时间尺度的变形场测量系统,并用此系统对一种花岗岩双剪滑动模型的黏滑过程进行了实验研究.对间黏滑期和黏滑期断层位移演化特征进行深入分析的结果表明:间黏滑期断层位移演化体现出空间上的非均匀性和时间上的"趋同化"特征,断层滑动趋同化也许是断层错动匀阻化的一种宏观表现形式;断层黏滑动态过程持续时间非常短(本文300 mm断层黏滑过程持续时间约在1 ms量级),黏滑失稳前会出现预滑,预滑出现到黏滑失稳发生所经历的时间与黏滑失稳过程所用时间相差一个量级;断层的一次黏滑由若干个滑动速度不同的、小的失稳滑动组成,黏滑失稳过程中断层的滑动速度呈现出波动性,整个滑动过程中断层经历了多个高速滑动和低速滑动的交错.     

硬石膏断层带摩擦稳定性转换与微破裂特征的实验研究

断层带摩擦稳定性转换及其对应的微破裂特征对于地震成核条件和慢地震机理研究具有重要的意义.本文利用双轴实验装置研究了硬石膏断层带摩擦稳定性的转换及其对应的应变变化、微破裂特征,并分析了实验标本的微观结构.实验结果表明,σ₂和加载点速度对断层滑动稳定性具有显著影响.在低σ₂条件下,硬石膏断层带出现不稳定滑动,变形以局部化的脆性破裂和摩擦为主;随σ₂的增加,断层由不稳定滑动向稳定滑动转换,断层带变形方式逐渐转变为分布式的破裂.在低σ₂条件下,硬石膏断层带在较低加载点速度下表现为速度强化且滑动稳定,在中等加载点速度下表现为速度弱化并伴有准周期性的黏滑,在较高加载点速度下又有转向速度强化的趋势,σ₂的提高使得速度弱化的范围逐渐减少,滑动趋于稳定.上述两次转换对应不同的微破裂特征,在较高速度下从速度弱化转换为速度强化时,断层滑动伴有能量较小但频度很高的微破裂活动,而在较低速度下从速度弱化转换为速度强化时,断层滑动伴有间歇性的微破裂,这与断层带的微观结构特征有较好的对应关系,表明其转换机制是不同的.     

Fault textures in volcanic conduits: evidence for seismic trigger mechanisms during silicic eruptions

It is proposed that fault textures in two dissected rhyolitic conduits in Iceland preserve evidence for shallow seismogenic faulting within rising magma during the emplacement of highly viscous lava flows. Detailed field and petrographic analysis of such textures may shed light on the origin of long-period and hybrid volcanic earthquakes at active volcanoes. There is evidence at each conduit investigated for multiple seismogenic cycles, each of which involved four distinct evolutionary phases. In phase 1, shear fracture of unrelaxed magma was triggered by shear stress accumulation during viscous flow, forming the angular fracture networks that initiated faulting cycles. Transient pressure gradients were generated as the fractures opened, which led to fluidisation and clastic deposition of fine-grained particles that were derived from the fracture walls by abrasion. Fracture networks then progressively coalesced and rotated during subsequent slip (phase 2), developing into cataclasite zones with evidence for multiple localised slip events, fluidisation and grain size reduction. Phase 2 textures closely resemble those formed on seismogenic tectonic faults characterised by friction-controlled stick-slip behaviour. Increasing cohesion of cataclasites then led to aseismic, distributed ductile deformation (phase 3) and generated deformed cataclasite zones, which are enriched in metallic oxide microlites and resemble glassy pseudotachylite. Continued annealing and deformation eventually erased all structures in the cataclasite and formed microlite-rich flow bands in obsidian (phase 4). Overall, the mixed brittle–ductile textures formed in the magma appear similar to those formed in lower crustal rocks close to the brittle–ductile transition, with the rheological response mediated by strain-rate variations and frictional heating. Fault processes in highly viscous magma are compared with those elsewhere in the crust, and this comparison is used to appraise existing models of volcano seismic activity. Based on the textures observed, it is suggested that patterns of long-period and hybrid earthquakes at silicic lava domes reflect friction-controlled stick-slip movement and eventual healing of fault zones in magma, which are an accelerated and smaller-scale analogue of tectonic faults.Editorial responsibility: J. Stix     

Study of fault slip modes

We present the data of the laboratory experiments on studying the regularities of gradual transition from the stick-slip behavior to aseismic creeping on the interblock boundary. The experiments show that small variations in the material composition in the principal slip zones of the faults may cause a significant change in the fraction of seismic energy radiated during the dynamic unloading of the adjacent segment of the rock mass. The experiments simulate interblock sliding regimes with the values of the scaled kinetic energy differing by a few orders of magnitude and relatively small distinctions in the strength of the contacts and in the amplitude of the released shear stresses. The results of the experiments show that the slip mode and the fraction of the deformation energy that goes into the seismic radiation are determined by the ratio of two parameters—the stiffness of the fault and the stiffness of the enclosing rock mass. An important implication of the study for solving the engineering tasks is that for bringing a stressed segment of a fault or a crack into a slip mode with low-intensity radiation of seismic energy, the anthropogenic impact should be aimed at diminishing the stiffness of the fault zone rather than at releasing the excessive stresses.